Traditional, in-store grocery shopping consumes 269 hours of your life per year (assuming you’re the “average” American grocery shopper). Online grocery shopping and home delivery, on the other hand, only takes up about 13 hours total, if that. Throw in other benefits such as money saved on driving (IRS’ most-recent estimate on the cost per mile of car travel is 58 cents) and impulse buying (4% of all groceries purchased at stores go to waste), online grocery shopping is a smart way to save yourself some time and money. [1] There’s not much tradeoff either between purchasing your groceries virtually vs. physically: prices and quality are about the same, if not better. [2] So unless you really like fighting for parking spots, listening to the sounds of screeching kids, and waiting for granny to check out aisle 7, then we recommend that you make the switch to online grocery shopping.

To help transition you from brick-and-mortar to bits-and-bytes grocery shopping, Smartlife has browsed to the very end of the Internet itself to bring you a list of 100 places you can buy groceries online. In compiling this list, we started with Mashable’s list of 50+ (okay, we took a bit of a shortcut) and then expanded/updated it from there. Like Mashable’s, the list is divided into five different categories of online grocer: U.S. nationwide (general), U.S. regional (general), international, multi-cultural, organic, and specialty.

U.S. Nationwide — General

Netgrocer

Amazon.com Grocery — This well-known Internet retailer offers a full range of non-perishable food items, attractive discounts, free home delivery, and a subscription program that gives you a 15% discount on items delivered at regular intervals. (Coupon Codes)

AULSuperStore.com — Buy non-perishable items in bulk or in regular-sized quantities with this online grocer that serves all 48 contiguous states.

Groceries-Express.com — Serves the greater Detroit area with a full line of grocery products, but also delivers non-frozen items throughout the country.

Meijer.com — Operating over 180 supercenters throughout Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Kentucky, this superstore offers delivery of non-perishable grocery items throughout the U.S. (minimum order is $50) and in-store pickup of groceries ordered online at local stores.

NetGrocer.com — Offers general grocery items, kosher items, and over 1,500 natural and organic items. Delivers to your home or next vacation destination and even to APO / FPO military zip codes.

ShopFoodEX.com — Ships general and hard-to-find non-perishable groceries throughout the continental U.S. Save yourself 10% on orders of $50 or more.

U.S. Regional — General

BigAppleGrocer

AcmeMarkets.com — For residents of DE, PA, and NJ, this brick-and-mortar and virtual grocery store offers either home delivery or in-store pickup of your groceries.

Albertsons.com — Pick up your groceries ordered online at a nearby store for $5.95 or have them delivered to your home for $12.95. Serves eight West Coast areas.

Amazon Fresh — Serving the greater Seattle area, this online market offers thousands of fresh food, farm-fresh, and bakery items delivered to you in temperature-controlled containers to ensure freshness and at convenient times of the day — pre-dawn, daytime, and same-day.

BigAppleGrocer.net — Delivers full-range of groceries to residents in Manhattan and Hudson County, NJ. Also ships non-perishable items to all 50 states — delivery is free for orders of $100 or more.

BlueRibbonFoods.com — Full-service grocer, specializing in beef, pork, and seafood. Delivers to residents in the Southwest part of the U.S.

FreshDirect.com — Delivers fresh-food items throughout the greater NYC area and offers an “Unlimited Delivery Pass” option that allows customers to pay a two-month, six-month, or one-year fee for unlimited deliveries over that period of time. (Coupon Codes)

GopherGrocery.com — Serves the Twin Cities region, offering more than 10,000 grocery items and a Loyalty Program that gives you $10 worth of groceries for every $500 you spend.

HomeShop — Delivers Kroger brands exclusively and thousands of other grocery items to several areas throughout Colorado. Also offers extra savings with SoopersCard account program.

MaxDelivery.com — Delivers thousands of grocery items as well as DVDs within one-hour to residents of the greater Manhattan area. First-time customers receive a 10% discount plus free “dinner-and-movie” delivery using the promo code MAXD.

MyPersonalFarmers.com — Sources food items ordered online from local farmers and producers. Services select areas in New York and Connecticut.

OneClickGrocery.com — Offers hundreds of grocery items at reasonable prices to college students in New York and Connecticut. Delivery is free.

Peapod.com — Delivers full range of groceries to several East Coast areas, parts of Chicago, and Wisconsin. Maintains history of your previously purchased grocery items for quicker shopping. (Coupon Codes)

UrbanGrocery.com — Offering a selection of over 5,800 grocery items, this grocer delivers goods from Magruder’s to residents in Washington D.C. Donates a fraction of all proceeds to the teen charity, ULTRA Teen Choice.

Wakozi.com — New online service based in NYC routes your order of beer, wine, cigarettes, groceries, and other convenience items to a nearby store for faster delivery.

YourGrocer.com — Servicing NYC and Westchester and Southwest Fairfield counties, this virtual grocery warehouse offers over 1,000 grocery items at a savings of 30-60% in comparison to local supermarkets. Receive free delivery each time you refer a friend.

Yummy.com — Servicing West Hollywood and Santa Monica, this full-line grocer delivers to your home or business in less than 30 minutes for only $3.99. Orders over $100 are delivered for free.

International

Waitrose

ExpatExpress.com — Visiting or living in another country? This grocer delivers hundreds of your favorite American food items to more 35 countries worldwide.

FoodFullStop.com — Offers home or postal delivery of fresh foods, kitchen equipment, cookbooks, and various gourmet gift baskets to customers in the U.K.

Freshline.com.au — Serves the Western Australia region with a full selection of organic groceries, including “green” body care essentials and pre-packaged boxes of organic fruits and vegetables.

GroceryGateway.com — Servicing the Toronto area, this online grocer delivers fresh and non-perishable items from Longo’s chain of retail stores directly to your home or office. Satisfaction is 100% guaranteed! Also gives $5 off for first-time customers. (I’m moving to Toronto!)

Multi-Cultural

AsianFoodGrocer.com — This San Francisco-based grocer offers a full range of Asian food and supplies for delivery to customers in the U.S. via FedEx or USPS. Two-day air delivery is available for frozen foods.

DutchStuff.com — Online specialty store offers a wide variety of Dutch products, including regional cheeses, meats, and desserts for delivery to U.S. customers. Only orders of $30 or more are accepted.

eFoodDepot.com — Connecting with various ethnic food providers from all over the world, this online store delivers over 6,000 products to customers in the U.S. WARNING: several readers have claimed issues with ordering from this online grocer, ranging from outright scam to non-responsiveness to faulty orders.

KGrocer.com — Los Angeles online grocer delivers Korean and other Asian food items to customers in the U.S and elsewhere.

MexGrocer.com — This bilingual, San Diego-based online grocery store is the largest of its kind — specializes in more than 1,500 authentic Mexican foods available for delivery in U.S. and Canada via UPS and USPS.

UrbanOrganic.com — Servicing NYC and New Jersey areas, this grocer offers various organic produce and groceries and a weekly “value box” of seasonal fruits and vegetables. New customers are required to pay a one-time, lifetime membership fee of $25.

AllFreshSeafood.com — Supplier to over 400 of the top restaurants in New York and New Jersey, this company offers a selection of whole fish, fillets, shellfish, smoked fish, caviars, and more.

AviGlatt.com — Offers variety of kosher food, kosher meat, and kosher dairy for delivery in the U.S.

BabiesTravelLite.com — Delivers baby foods and other baby products (e.g., diapers and toys) to your home or vacation destination worldwide.

Basic-Ingredients.com — Ohio’s Christian-based grocer delivers pantry staples, candies, and other ever-day items in bulk quantities to your doorstep or makes them available for pickup if you live in the area.

iGourmet.com — Delivers specialty foods and gourmet items throughout the U.S. — overnight deliveries available for $9.95 on orders of $85 or more. Also offers monthly clubs for cheese, coffee, and other fine products that make great gifts.

WeGoShop.com — Personal grocery shopping and home delivery service that goes to local stores of your choice. Serves U.S., Canada, Bahamas, and Puerto Rico. (Check the website’s listings to see if your area is serviced.)

Westerns-Smokehouse.com — Family-owned, Missouri-based establishment ships specialty meats to all 50 states. Offers a variety of meat-based gift packs and a “Meat of the Month” club for less than $450 per year. Every order comes with a free meat stick!

YourFoodStore.com — Iowa-based store offers hard-to-find and non-traditional items that are unavailable in most conventional supermarkets. Also offers a free 8 oz. bottle of Sue Bee Honey with every order of $50 or more.

Image credit: PaulFleet / iStockphoto

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Chad Hagy contributed to this post.

References/notes:- [1] According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ 2007 American Time Use Survey (ATUS), Americans who engage in the activity of grocery shopping spend an average of .74 hours per day. For information on the IRS’ estimate on the cost per mile of car travel see this press release. Source data for cost of impulse buying: Meal Mixer Money Savings Calculator. To estimate the time it takes to purchase groceries online, we used the beta distribution statistical method: average = (a + 4b + c) / 6, where a = pessimistic estimate, b = most likely estimate, and c = optimistic estimate. Values we used: a = 20 minutes, b = 15 minutes, and c = 10 minutes. - [2] See MSNBC article, “Attention! Online grocery-shopping is back.”

Post updates:
- September 23, 2008 at 12:30 AM ET: Added JetSetBabies.com to the list. (This takes the list to 101, but who’s counting?)
- October 8, 2008 at 6:30 PM ET: Added BneMeats.com and Greenling.com. (List is now at 103.)
- October 15, 2008 at 6:30 PM ET: Updated the average time a person spends grocery shopping to reflect the average amount of time spent by those persons (15 years and over) who actually engage in the activity (of grocery shopping) as opposed to all persons (15 years and over) who may or may not. See footnote [1] for more details and source data.
- November 27, 2008 at 7:30 PM ET: Added Meijer to the list (now up to 104).

YourGrocer.com are a terrible service. If you order frozen food don’t expect it to arrive still frozen. First order I got it was thawing.

Second order they tried to deliver to me when I did not expect them. I was charged for the order even though I never got it as they claimed the food had perished. Apparently it was ok coming from them to me but in the return journey it “perished” and I had to pay for it.

My bank gave me a charge back but they kept recharging my card so many times, my bank gave up.

Their customer service is shocking. They don’t answer emails. And when you call them you get an answering machine.

Kym, thanks for the comment. I’ll remember not to try YourGrocer.com. I’ve been using Peapod for a few years now with no major complaints. One of the reasons that I like Peapod is that it maintains a history of your previously purchased grocery items. Since I, like most people, tend to purchase the same items over and over, this makes checkout quite easy. The shopping history that some of these online grocers maintain for you can streamline your grocery shopping even further, saving you even more time by grocery shopping online. For example, as mentioned in the 1st paragraph of my post, I estimated online grocery shopping would take you 13 hours per year. If you shop off your history online, it will take far less than 13 hours. It probably takes me 8 to 12 minutes to grocery shop each time.

Well if you guys are looking for good fresh food online, Ive shopped at B & E Meats and Seafood for 20 years and now my kids shop their. Its a family owned, butcher shop they carry all kinds of stuff but my favorite are their marinated meats and smoked products. If you do decide to try them out buy the Kalbi Ribs or Candy Salmon, I haven’t had a party that people didn’t rave over them. I am not the best writer but the main reason i am posting this is because they are that good, for me to even take the time to write this, and finally they are online so everyone can enjoy some great foods. http://www.bnemeats.com post a reply, I love to hear peoples opinions that try any of their stuff

SimonDelivers was purchased by Coborn’s, a large midwest retail grocer, this summer. The new website is http://www.cobornsdelivers.com. Same service model, with much lower prices and $5 delivery fee for orders over $50. It still services the Twin Cities market.

Thank you for this awesome list! Will you consider adding my grocery delivery business as well?

HomelandDelivery.com – This is our main site where we offer national service. We also have a personal grocery delivery service in Atlanta, GA as you will see on our site. And soon to be in Tampa Florida: Sunshine.HomelandDelivery.com

I have used AUL several times and have been well pleased with the service and the merchandise. Their website is very easy to use. A delightful experience expecially if you’re homebound for any reason. I love them.

I am stationed in Baghdad Iraq and used AULsuperstore.com to get some items that I can not get here. I asked that my order be packaged safely for the harsh conditions that they endure in the shipping process here.

My order arrived very quickly, as well as 100% intact. The Box was packed extremely well and was very apreciated.

I will definitely be using their service again in the future during my deployment.

I’m having major issues with EFood Depot. My order was delayed for weeks for an out-of-stock item. Then, after a second follow up, though the website said it was still pending, they emailed back that they had already shipped it and they provided a FedEx tracking code. I checked the code several days in a row as it kept coming back with no info. When I called FedEx, they said it was because the shipment had been set up, but the store never gave them a package.

I emailed to confront them on this (after finding out that their phone goes to a mailbox that is full), and asked for a refund. They replied to say that they had shipped it, but FedEx returned it, and they offered to reship (no info was given on why FedEx would have returned it, or when, or why I would not have been informed since it was a couple of weeks before). Given the lack of information in their reply, I have to assume something is very amiss.

If FedEx had received it and returned the package to the sender, the tracking code would have registered this, and in any case, they chose not to address this discrepancy in their reply.

Either the store is a scam, or they are in trouble and are not able to fill orders, but clearly something is very wrong. The replies I’m getting are so vague you have to worry. I’m hoping to get my money back at some point.

After having placed hundreds of online orders over the years with a huge variety of stores, this is the first time I have been ripped off. I buy food from many online stores (I’m in Canada, btw), and love it! Gourmet Sleuth is top notch. EFood Depot has an amazing selection. I’m quite disappointed. Oh, and Goldmine Natural Foods is fantastic!

Great information regarding a hundred places to buy groceries on line. I save time and gas money by shopping on line. I find that La Cense is consistently dependable on its deliveries. I feel grass fed steak is the healthiest type of beef to buy. This way I can be assured of meat that is antibiotic and pesticide free, as well as hormone free. A great place to get grass fed steaks delivered is LaCense Beef. While I work for them, the reason I order from them time and again is that their meat is really high quality and is much healthier than the alternatives. I would definitely recommend them.

Be careful ordering from Avi Glatt. They’re sneaky – will substitute items and then refuse to refund/exchange because they’ve got something written in their ridiculously long legal agreement for ordering that you need to tell them not to substitute items. I’ve been very displeased with how they handled our order.

It’s nice that you included the link to Amazon’s grocery section. Not too many people are aware that you can buy food and drink items through Amazon. I’ve bought some stuff in the past and figured out that there are coupon codes available for most of the food and drink products available. I usually check http://www.coupongravy.com/site/amazon.com which always has a pretty concise list of all the coupon codes for that month. I prefer that site over RetailMeNot as I find their coupon codes are not updated as often.

Allen Brothers is by far the best steak delivery service out there. Although it’s not the cheapest, I always get top notch steaks that are literally unmatched in quality. I order steaks maybe once every few months, always from Allen Brothers.

Manhattan Gourmet Foods has some of the best steak you can find, better than Omaha IMO. They are based out of Florida and probably aren’t that well known nationally yet, but I think they will be in a couple years. They sell chicken and seafood too, I’ve bought some boxes of chicken too and it’s real good. They ship anywhere in the U.S. also I believe. Their website is manhattangourmetfoods.com.